Reality and Dreams: Derailment 2

I had a dream about this one just last night.

          I was riding the LRT going to Vito Cruz while the weather is wee bit stormy. Just before we could reach Doroteo Jose station, a large bolt of thunder came roaring above the train I was riding. It [the train] stopped momentarily then after a few minutes, we finally took a stop the station. Just as the train left, it turned around and headed back towards Monumento Terminal.

          The train conductor reason through the intercom that he needs to head the train back to the terminal as he fear for our safety as passengers. The moment he heard thunder roaring like a tiger, he said he knew that he cannot continue with the trip.

DUWAG!

Reality and Dreams: Derailment

A couple of weeks ago, I dreamt I was riding in a jeep on my way home to school. By the time the jeep is somewhere in Gov. Pascual Avenue somewhere near Potrero, i came across a rugged part of the road, drilled and dug out as if there seem to be some sort of ongoing construction.

It was actually, at least in my dream, an ongoing rehabilitation of the PNR's Northrail. In reality, Northrail was supposed to undergo rehabilitation starting with demolition of squatter colonies then later proceed with the rehabilitation proper from Caloocan to Dagupan hopefully.

Bad news  though, it was all a dream. Northrail has yet to undergo such even if they were able to get rid most of the informak settlers more than 2-3 years ago. I wonder what's holding them up?

Vanity at its Finest

When vanity strikes, it gets even...

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

So far, I haven't given any of my reviews on books, movies, and television shows a perfect grade of 5 out of 5. This new one won't get one either, but it's still one of the best serials I've seen in a long while.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the television spin-off of the popular Terminator movie franchise. Although we're not gonna expect Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Linda Hamilton to appear in their respective roles in this series, the series follows an alternative timeline after the events that occured in T2. This would effectively ignore the culmination that was T3 in 2003.

Quick Summary: TTSCC is set in 1999, several years after the events of T2. The Connors are on the run from what they believe as Terminators sent back in time to kill John Connor, the one destined to become mankind's savior. The mother of destiny, tries her earnest to lead a normal life with her son but realized that they cannot lead such because of the impending Judgement Day.

It was when they met a young female-looking Terminator named Cameron Philips that decided to go to the future (present time) to prevent the development of Skynet, thus effectively prevent Judgement Day from ever taking place.

When I learn that there's going to be a television show based on the Terminator series, I know from that point on that I'll be hooked to this series once it airs on local TV. Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch episodes in succession so I'm making up for it by watching season 2 online.


Review Proper:

One thing's for sure, this show kick a$$! I like the dynamic shown by the actors portraying the Connors, John and Sarah, plus Cameron and surprisingly, John's uncle from the future, Derek Reese. They show a kind of family that may not be very typical (read: Brady Bunch) but are always there for each other despite ups and downs.

Drama-wise, this show has a lot of heavy scenes that could almost mistaken TTSCC as a daytime soap opera instead of being a sci fi drama. The pace is slow but not dragging. You have that feeling of dormancy within the show that at any given time it would explode. Just hoping it won't taken them too long during the remaining season 2 episodes to finally spur some active excitement.

In terms of action sequences, they tend to be passive. You have that feeling that you know that there ought to be more than what we're seeing right now. Satisfactory yes but based from a teaser for upcoming episodes, it seems that we, as viewers, are gonna get what we deserve.

Let's go to character development: Summer Glau's scenes are becoming increasingly weird, awkward and comedic all at the same time. There was one episode where she is seen entering John's room, wearing a bikini while walking.

Thomas Dekker shows too much angst as young John Connor. He's too much of an idiotic, disobedient boy. Unlike his counterpart in T3, this John so wants to embrace his destiny but not in a very logical way. Good thing he has one tough mom in the form of Sarah Connor, played by Lena Headey.

I'm all praises for Lena. She does an amazing job doing much justice to the role popularized by Linda Hamilton. She may not be able to fuse the same kind of energy that Linda Hamilton gave to the role, she was able to put little but of something from herself that makes TTSCC so much of a guilty pleasure as a whole.

Another guilty pleasure is the presence of seaosn 2 villainess, Catherine Weaver (2.0), portrayed by Shirley Manson. Her character is not exactly Catherine Weaver, but a Terminator T-1001 pretending to be like her (much like the antagonist in T3). She is quick with her wit, beautiful yet dangerous. One recent episode prove that she's a deadly vixen. One funny scene though was her shape-shifting into a men's urinal before killing off a guy about to pee into what he thought as a...urinal.

The idea of time-traveling shouldn't be expanded with the concept of alternate realities being given too much emphasis. IMHO, this would gravely affect the storytelling of the series as well compromising viewer interest due to the unnecessary confusion.

I'm hoping that there's going to be a season 3 since I'm curious if in the end they're going to finally provide a road towards T4: Salvation or stand out and do something fans of the franchise may not expect (like being able to thwart Judgement Day completely and successfully prevented the very existence of Skynet).

Here's the spoiler of upcoming episodes of TTSCC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya6ehFwbS4o
and a photo of Cameron wearing a bikini on what could be a very awkward moment: http://i43.tinypic.com/iqm1xi.jpg

The CSB Experience 2: Whenever You're Left Alone...Eating

Whenever you're left all alone,
there's a way back to home,
it's time to think the family through.
They have been waiting for you
to open the door
As you come home...

     I just realized that in less than a few weeks from now, it's going to be The J-Blog Files' second anniversary! Nice!

    After more than several weeks eating lunch in CSB Main, looks like I got the hang of it too much. Why? I DON'T KNOW!

    Yesterday, I was, for the first time in weeks, to eat lunch in SDA. I wanted to eat somewhere else but some stuff prevented me to do so. No choice but to consume a very expensive lunch at the SDA Caf.

       As always, I was trying to look for an available table because there was one helluva crowd occupying a lot of the seats in groups. Thank goodness I did found one.

     I prefer eating alone since I don't see the need to eat along with a group. Maybe if you have a barkada that you're identified with, yes but in my case I don't. I make friends but never join in barkadas so I roam around campus, being me. :))

     Meanwhile, so I was in my table eating, thinking a lot of things inside my mind. I then left my table to get a glass of water. at the nearby fountain. After filling it up with water, I drank it and went back to my table. What's weird is that I brought the empty glass with me!

    Supposedly, I was to have it filled with water then bring it to my table before I coud have the chance to drink its contents.

      What really sucks was that after eating, out-of-nowhere, I suddenly brought my plate and threw away whatever its contents was into one of the three trashcans found there for no apparent reason behind it. Then I had this urge to place the plate above one of the trash cans, I don't know!

      That's when I realized I was doing what I always do whenever I eat lunch at Main: I drink a glass of water coming from the fountain and would always leave it there along with the other used glasses, after eating I would throw the left-overs at the nearby trashcans and leave the plate on a place where the maintenance crew would get it and have it washed. That's my regular routine. In SDA< I could have just left it at my table because surely it's goin to be picked up by the service crew anyway.

      Maybe, I missed eating in Main even it was for one day. Maybe, I hate eating inside the SDA Caf that I grew to become oblivious with the culture happening over there.

In the end, I wanna ask myself: "How and why and what are these things for?"

J Pics D40 Pics: Ang Bolo ay Mas Matalas sa Pana...For Life!

Our last Sondesn class under Mr. Henry Bolo. It was fun while it lasted.

Midterms galore!

Including pics taken during my breaktime and Desncon class at the 7th floor SDA.

Mode: Manual ISO: 800 Aperture: Around f/5.6 Shutter Speed: Depends on exposure

J Pics D40 Pics: Malikot na Daliri

All taken last Sunday.

Went to Philamlife Auditorium to watch Albert's and, surprisinglly, Fred's piano recital. Many are surprisingly good, even the younger ones. Kulang na lang, mawasak na nila iyung piano, hahaha!

Didn't get to watch Fred's performance though since it was getting late.

Mostly point and shoot (auto). Majority has ISO 200, some has ISO 800. A few are set in Manual Mode. Aperture is fluctuating so it's hard to get the best light.